Spherical particles of transition metal carbonates, transition metal hydroxides or transition metal carbonate hydroxides comprising cations of at least two transition metals selected from nickel, cobalt, manganese, titanium, vanadium, chromium and iron, wherein the concentration of at least one of the transition metal cations, plotted against the radius of the particle in question, has at least one relative extreme value which is neither in the center nor at the edge of the particle in question.